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Teheran 43 starts in 1980 in Paris. The memories of hero Andrei take the story back to 1943. The Germans planned to assassinate the three men 37 years later, and the German agent Max lives with Françoise, a young Parisian woman, who hides him. But another Nazi, Scherner, is hunting down Max who failed to carry out the planned assassinations. Max trusts Françoise but he does not know that she works for Scherner. Another plot in the movie is the romance between Andrei and the French woman Marie in 1943, followed in 1980. Max Richard (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan), an assassin of the Nazis, who was 43 years ago hired to assassinate Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Tehran Conference, is holed up in today's Paris at the young French woman Françoise (Claude Jade). In flashbacks, he describes Françoise who claims to be a neighbor in his apartment because she mistook the door, the assassination attempts. Max was brought in 1943 to Tehran as a funeral director of a previously murdered Persian. Max also kills the lawyer of the dead, Gérard Simon (Gleb Strizhenov). But Simon's interpreter Marie (Natalya Belokhvostikova) and the young Russian Secret agent Andrei (Igor Kostolevsky) get him on the loose. The two have no time for romance but thwart the assassination. They can arrest a fake photographer (Georges Géret). The man who posed as a photographer and cinematographer "Dennis Pew" had a gun in his movie camera. Andrei, who cares for the safety of the young woman, sends Marie, who is in love with him, to France. They do not see each other again. When Max wants to publish his memoirs and documents in Paris today with the help of the lawyer Legraine (Curd Jürgens), Andrei travels to Paris. At an auction of Max's documents in London, Andrej sees a young woman who is very similar to Marie. She is Marie's daughter Nathalie. Françoise, meanwhile Max's mistress, also pursues her own goals. She claims to work for his former client Scherner (Albert Filozov) and to have spared Max only out of pity. In Paris, the paths of Marie and Andreiand of Marie's daughter Nathalie and police inspector Foche (Alain Delon), who chases the former masterminds around Scherner, intersect. During a plane hijacking initiated by Scherner, Andrei meets Nathalie again. Foche, who wants to protect Nathalie's mother, is assassinated in the back. Max gets scared when Marie is killed as a former witness after a short reunion with Andrei. Then, Françoise takes him to a new hiding place. Andrei visits Nathalie and learns from her that Marie loved him all those years. She told her daughter about swimming together and told her about the dolphins, but those were just her dreams. In his new hideout, Max is shot by Scherner's men. Legraine interrogates Scherner and Françoise; possibly, he will negotiate with them about the manuscript. Andrei travels back to Moscow. 

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At the start of the series Sláine was a wanderer, banished from his tribe, the Sessair. He explored the Land of the Young (Irish Tír na nÓg) in the company of an unscrupulous dwarf called Ukko (Finnish for "old man", and the name of the Finnish Thunder god), fighting monsters and mercenaries in the fantasy tradition. In one early adventure he rescued a maiden, Medb from being sacrificed in a Wicker Man, only to earn her enmity – she was a devotee of Crom Cruach, the god to whom she was to be sacrificed, and was looking forward to the experience. Her master and mentor, the ancient, rotting and insane Lord Weird Slough Feg, became the series' main villain. Following stories featured sky chariots (flying longships), dragons and prehistoric alien gods. As the series progressed, Sláine returned to his tribe and became king (as had been foretold in the narrative of his first appearance), leading them against the Fomorians, a race of sea demons who were oppressing them. Then, in the landmark storyline The Horned God, Sláine united the tribes of the earth goddess against Slough Feg and his allies, while his personal devotion to the goddess led to him becoming a new incarnation of the Horned God Carnun (based on the Gaulish deity Cernunnos). By the end of the story the Land of the Young is no more, and Sláine is the first High King of Ireland. Sláine in Simon Bisley's version. Subsequent stories saw Sláine sent through time by the earth goddess to fight alongside Celtic, and other, heroes and heroines such as Boudica (with whom he fought against the Romans (and Elfric), and William Wallace), and more recently return to Ireland to defend his people against new enemies alongside his wife Niamh. These new enemies turned out to be a full Fomorian invasion led by Balor and the sadistic Moloch, murdering, raping and eating their way through Slaine's tribe until, wracked with warp-spasm, Slaine was able to take out Balor. The tribal council forced Slaine to let Moloch go, hoping he would fulfill his promise of keeping the Fomorians out of Ireland; instead, he deliberately returned to rape and murder Niamh. Wanting vengeance, Slaine abdicated the throne to go to Albion and kill Moloch, which he succeeded in doing. In his absence, his son Kai left the tribe to search for his father (eventually becoming a performer in an Albion carnival) and Ireland faced a second invasion – "the dread of Europe", Atlanteans whose ancestors had lived in Ireland before the tribes of Danu and who had been forcibly turned into hosts – Golamhs – for the symbiotic Sea Demons under Lord Odacon (an offshoot of the Fomorians), who easily threw the tribes' Sky Chariots into the Otherworld. Upon Slaine's return, he found the new High King Sethor, former member of the council who had granted Moloch freedom, was willing to surrender half of Ireland to Odacon in return for the gifts of science and civilisation. Slaine was able to convince the tribal council that the demons could be killed and war was once more declared on the invaders, but it was clear that Ireland would be constantly attacked by wave after wave of Fomorian invasion. Slaine hit on the idea of having the Tribe of Danu escape to the Otherworld that their Sky Chariots had been sent to, thus freeing them from the demons and allowing the Atlanteans to settle peacefully in Ireland; both armies united against Odacon and his Sea Demons. Slaine was able to free the Atlantean leader Gael from being Odacon's Golamh by handing over Sethor to take Gael's place; and they led their armies to bolster the city of Tara. While the tribes fought a defensive battle, Slaine was sent to the Otherworld to secure the blessings of Danu for the Tribes of the Earth Goddess to settle there; this done, he returned with her power behind him and led a charge that decimated Odacon's forces. The Tribe was cast to the Otherworld in the aftermath, and Slaine assisted Gael in finally destroying Odacon and the parasitic spawn with which he had infested the outer-lying villages. With Gael as High King of Ireland and founder of the eventual Gaelic race, Slaine left to track down his son. He found Kai at a travelling funfair, and later embarked on a quest to track down Crom Dubh. 

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Bambi is a roe deer fawn born in a thicket in late spring one year. Over the course of the summer, his mother teaches him about the various inhabitants of the forest and the ways deer live. When she feels he is old enough, she takes him to the meadow which he learns is both a wonderful but also dangerous place as it leaves the deer exposed and in the open. After some initial fear over his mother's caution, Bambi enjoys the experience. On a subsequent trip, Bambi meets his Aunt Ena, and her twin fawns Faline and Gobo. They quickly become friends and share what they have learned about the forest. While they are playing, they encounter princes, male deer, for the first time. After the stags leave, the fawns learn that those were their fathers, but that the fathers rarely stay with or speak to the females and young. As Bambi grows older, his mother begins to leave him alone. While searching for her one day, Bambi has his first encounter with "He" - the animals' term for humans - which terrifies him. The man raises a firearm and aims at him; Bambi flees at top speed, joined by his mother. After he is scolded by a stag for crying for his mother, Bambi gets used to being alone at times. He later learns the stag is called the "Old Prince", the oldest and largest stag in the forest who is known for his cunning and aloof nature. During the winter, Bambi meets Marena, a young doe, Nettla, an old doe who no longer bears young, and two princes, Ronno and Karus. Mid-winter, hunters enter the forest, killing many animals including Bambi's mother. Gobo also disappears and is presumed dead. After this, the novel skips ahead a year, noting that Bambi, now a young adult, was cared for by Nettla and that when he got his first set of antlers he was abused and harassed by the other males. It is summer and Bambi is now sporting his second set of antlers. He is reunited with his cousin Faline. After he battles and defeats first Karus then Ronno, Bambi and Faline fall in love with each other. They spend a great deal of time together. During this time, the old Prince saves Bambi's life when he nearly runs towards a hunter imitating a doe's call. This teaches the young buck to be cautious about blindly rushing toward any deer's call. During the summer, Gobo returns to the forest having been raised by a man who found him collapsed in the snow during the hunt where Bambi's mother was killed. While his mother and Marena welcome him and celebrate him as a "friend" of man, the old Prince and Bambi pity him. Marena becomes his mate, but several weeks later Gobo is killed when he approaches a hunter in the meadow, falsely believing the halter he wore would keep him safe from all men. As Bambi continues to age, he begins spending most of his time alone, including avoiding Faline though he still loves her in a melancholic way. Several times he meets with the old Prince who teaches him about snares, shows him how to free another animal from one, and encourages him not to use trails, to avoid the traps of men. When Bambi is later shot by a hunter, the Prince shows him how to walk in circles to confuse the man and his dogs until the bleeding stops, then takes him to a safe place to recover. They remain together until Bambi is strong enough to leave the safe haven again. When Bambi has grown gray and is "old", the old Prince shows him that man is not all-powerful by showing him the dead body of a man who was shot and killed by another man. When Bambi confirms that he now understands that "He" is not all-powerful, and that there is "Another" over all creatures, the stag tells him that he has always loved him and calls him "my son" before leaving. At the end of the novel, Bambi meets with twin fawns who are calling for their mother and he scolds them for not being able to stay alone. After leaving them, he thinks to himself that the girl fawn reminded him of Faline, and that the male was promising and that Bambi hoped to meet him again when he was grown. 

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The Earthman Elijah Baley (the detective hero of the previous Robot books) has died nearly two centuries earlier. During these two centuries, Earth-people have overcome their agoraphobia and resumed space colonization, using faster- than-light drive to reach distant planets beyond the earlier "Spacer" worlds. Their inhabitants, calling themselves "Settlers" rather than "Spacers", revere Earth as their mother-world. Baley's memory remains in the mind of his former lover, Gladia Delmarre, a long-lived "Spacer" who uncharacteristically relocated from the spacer world of Solaria to Aurora. Gladia's homeworld and the 50th-established of the Spacer planets, Solaria, has become empty of all human inhabitants, although millions of robot servants remain. A seventh- generation descendant of Baley's, Daneel Giskard ('D.G.') Baley, gains Gladia's help in visiting Solaria, to investigate the destruction of several "Settler" spaceships that made landings there, and to capture the presumably unsupervised robots. Gladia is accompanied by the positronic robots R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov, both the former property of their creator, Dr. Han Fastolfe, who bequeathed them to Gladia in his will. R. Giskard has secret telepathic powers of which only R. Daneel knows. At the same time, Daneel and Giskard are engaged in a struggle of wits with Fastolfe's rivals: The roboticists Kelden Amadiro and Vasilia Aliena, Fastolfe's estranged daughter. Frustrated by his series of failures, Amadiro accepts an ambitious and unscrupulous apprentice, Levular Mandamus, who plans to destroy the population of the Earth by a newly developed weapon, the "nuclear intensifier", with which to accelerate the natural radioactive decay in the upper crust of the Earth, thereby making the surface of the Earth radioactive. R. Daneel and R. Giskard discover the roboticists' plan, and attempt to stop Amadiro; but are hampered by the First Law of Robotics, which prevents them from a direct attack on Amadiro. Daneel and Giskard, meanwhile, have inferred an additional Zeroth Law of Robotics: which might enable them to overcome Amadiro, if they can use their telepathic perception of humanity to quell the inhibitions of the first law. When Vasilia accuses Giskard of telepathy (earlier created by herself) Giskard is compelled to manipulate her mind to make her forget about his telepathic powers. The two robots locate Amadiro and Mandamus on Earth, at the site of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. After Amadiro admits their plans, Giskard alters Amadiro's brain (using the newly created Zeroth Law); but in so doing, threatens his own. Now alone with the robots, Mandamus claims that his intentions were to draw out the radioactive catastrophe over many decades, rather than the mere years that Amadiro wanted, and Giskard, believing it best for humanity to abandon the Earth, allows Mandamus to do this (resulting in the situation depicted by Pebble in the Sky), and deprives Mandamus of the memory of doing so. Giskard predicts, correctly, that by forcing humanity into leaving the Earth, vigor will be reintroduced into mankind and the new Settlers will populate space until all the governments of the interstellar colonies form a "Galactic Empire". Under the stress of changing the course of humanity (against First and Zeroth Laws), R. Giskard himself suffers a soon-fatal malfunction of his positronic brain and confers his telepathic ability upon R. Daneel. 

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On holiday at her uncle's farm in New Zealand, Gretchen befriends Ronny, a Māori boy with a troubled city past, and Bevis, the birdwatching son of a loathed developer. Tension is already high as the developer wants to buy and drain a local swamp for a housing estate, but Ronny's uncle is the guardian of a traditional Māori tapu (taboo/curse) upon the swamp. The swamp must not be touched--something sleeps there that must not be awakened. Something unnatural. In the story, twelve-year-old Gretchen has a passion for science and a talent for all things mechanical, which is why the strange old brass "weathervane" (referred to as the "daisy rod") on her uncle's farm fascinates her. But the brass daisy rod has a complex and terrifying significance, and Gretchen and her new friend Ronny discover its links with the far distant Sirius, the Dog Star. Gradually, the children discover the pieces of an ancient alien space probe named Kolob. During the series they assemble the missing parts and strange things start to happen. The probe was one of three sent to earth to educate the human race in science. In the end a communication link is set up with the star Sirius B, from where the probe came, and the aliens tell them they should not have interfered. 

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According to an old legend, when the end of the world comes, a place known as Paradise will appear. However, only wolves will know how to find it. Although wolves are believed to have been hunted to extinction nearly two hundred years ago, they still exist, surviving by casting illusions over themselves to make them appear human. Freeze City is a northern human city in a world where the majority of people live in poverty and hardship. Kiba, an injured lone white wolf, goes to Freeze City following the scent of the Lunar Flower, which is the key to opening Paradise. There he encounters Tsume, Hige and Toboe, three other wolves who were drawn to Freeze City by the scent of the Lunar Flower and are now living in the city. The wolves encounter Quent Yaiden, a former Sheriff of Kyrios who is obsessed with hunting down wolves, and his dog Blue. Cheza, the Flower Maiden who is destined to lead the wolves to Paradise, is being studied at a laboratory under the care of Cher Degré. She is awakened by the smell of wolf's blood. As Kiba and Hige approach the lab to find her, she is stolen away by Lord Darcia the Third, whose people created Cheza. With the Flower Maiden gone, the wolves have no reason to stay in the city. Despite some initial misgivings and suspicions, they decide to stay together and follow Kiba in his search for the Flower Maiden and Paradise. As they pursue Cheza, the wolves travel through various cities and the remnants of former habitations. Cher joins the city's army to try to recover Cheza, while Cher's ex-husband Hubb Lebowski searches desperately for Cher, and Quent continues his relentless pursuit of the wolves. When Blue eventually encounters Cheza, it awakens her wolf blood from dormancy and causes her to leave Quent and take on her own human form. She joins the wolves and travels with them for a while, developing an intense and close romantic relationship with Hige, and meanwhile Hubb finds himself traveling with Quent, who is now searching for Blue as well as the wolves. Hubb eventually finds Cher and from there they continue their pursuit of the wolves to find Cheza. Together the wolves reach Darcia's keep after Kiba goes off on his own. Hubb, Cher and Quent arrive in the keep, and Tsume, Toboe, and Hige find Kiba, Cheza and Darcia during a sword fight between Darcia and Kiba. The reunion is short- lived however because Jaguara's troops attack, destroying the keep in the process. The Noble's troops capture Cheza, Hubb, Cher and Blue during the raid, and the wolves get separated from Kiba. After finding Kiba, the wolves continue their journey to rescue Cheza from Jaguara, while Cher rescues Blue and manages to find Cheza with help from Hubb, but Jaguara's troops instantly recapture Cheza, taking Hubb with them and forcing Cher and Blue to find Cheza on their own. The wolves and the humans eventually come together in Jaguara's city, where the captured Cheza is being held. In attempting to rescue the abducted Cheza, Kiba, Tsume and Toboe are captured. Tsume and Toboe are thrown into a dungeon with Hubb while Jaguara attempts to use Kiba's blood to force Paradise to open. Meanwhile, Hige and Blue are reunited outside the Keep, where Hige remembers that he had once worked for Jaguara and decides to go rescue his friends, but not before telling Blue to stay outside and promising her that he will return to her no matter what. While waiting for Hige, Blue is reunited with her master Quent and meanwhile Darcia, having survived the attack on his keep, interrupts Jaguara's ceremony as Kiba and the other wolves break free and rush to free the Flower Maiden. Hige is wounded during the fight against Jaguara and Kiba arrives after Darcia is poisoned by the Noble. Darcia battles Jaguara along with Kiba and finally slays her as the keep begins to collapse, ending the anime's original 26-episode run. As the original video animation (OVA) episodes begin, the wolves and the humans escape Jaguara's city, which has fallen into chaos. Quent is gravely wounded saving Blue from an oncoming vehicle, but he and Blue are found by Hubb and Cher, and subsequently by the wolves and Cheza. Together, they all continue making their way to Paradise, pursued by the now insane Darcia. As the Earth begins to fall into destruction, Cher dies when the car falls off a cliff. And soon after, Toboe is accidentally shot by Quent when he tries to shoot Darcia who in turn kills Quent. Hubb tries to keep up with the remaining wolves climbing up a mountain, but falls to his death. Darcia attacks the remaining wolves killing Hige, Blue, and Tsume, leaving only Kiba, Cheza and Darcia alive at the place where Paradise can be opened. Darcia and Kiba battle over who will open Paradise, in which Kiba is fatally wounded. Darcia dies when he attempts to enter Paradise due to not being a true wolf. Kiba finds Cheza as she dies and disintegrates into seeds. Dying, Kiba concludes that his quest has failed, but rain begins to fall and Cheza's seeds grow into thousands of lunar flowers. As he dies, Kiba falls into the water's depths but sees the blood red moon turning back to its normal color. Cheza's death causes Paradise, as well as the world, to be reborn. However, Darcia's corruption can be seen taking root in this new Paradise. The final scenes take place in what appears to be a 21st-century Japanese city. Kiba, apparently reincarnated as a human, passes other humans who resemble Tsume, Hige and Toboe; a lunar flower is seen blooming in an alleyway. 

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The play opens at night, when the citizens of Llareggub are asleep. The narrator (First Voice/Second Voice) informs the audience that they are witnessing the townspeople's dreams. Captain Cat, the blind sea captain, is tormented in his dreams by his drowned shipmates, who long to live again and enjoy the pleasures of the world. Mog Edwards and Myfanwy Price dream of each other; Mr. Waldo dreams of his childhood and his failed marriages; Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard dreams of her deceased husbands. Almost all of the characters in the play are introduced as the audience witnesses a moment of their dreams. Morning begins. The voice of a guide introduces the town, discussing the facts of Llareggub. The Reverend Eli Jenkins delivers a morning sermon on his love for the village. Lily Smalls wakes and bemoans her pitiful existence. Mr. and Mrs. Pugh observe their neighbours; the characters introduce themselves as they act in their morning. Mrs. Cherry Owen merrily rehashes her husband's drunken antics. Butcher Beynon teases his wife during breakfast. Captain Cat watches as Willy Nilly the postman goes about his morning rounds, delivering to Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard, Mrs. Pugh, Mog Edwards and Mr. Waldo. At Mrs. Organ-Morgan's general shop, women gossip about the townspeople. Willy Nilly and his wife steam open a love letter from Mog Edwards to Myfanwy Price; he expresses fear that he may be in the poor house if his business does not improve. Mrs. Dai Bread Two swindles Mrs. Dai Bread One with a bogus fortune in her crystal ball. Polly Garter scrubs floors and sings about her past paramours. Children play in the schoolyard; Gwennie urges the boys to "kiss her where she says or give her a penny." Gossamer Beynon and Sinbad Sailors privately desire each other. During dinner, Mr. Pugh imagines poisoning Mrs. Pugh. Mrs. Organ-Morgan shares the day's gossip with her husband, but his only interest is the organ. The audience sees a glimpse of Lord Cut-Glass's insanity in his "kitchen full of time". Captain Cat dreams of his lost lover, Rosie Probert, but weeps as he remembers that she will not be with him again. Nogood Boyo fishes in the bay, dreaming of Mrs. Dai Bread Two and geishas. On Llareggub Hill, Mae Rose Cottage spends a lazy afternoon wishing for love. Reverend Jenkins works on the White Book of Llareggub, which is a history of the entire town and its citizens. On the farm, Utah Watkins struggles with his cattle, aided by Bessie Bighead. As Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard falls asleep, her husbands return to her. Mae Rose Cottage swears that she will sin until she explodes. The Sailor's Home Arms, New Quay, now known as the Seahorse Inn, which provided the name for the Sailors Arms. As night begins, Reverend Jenkins recites another poem. Cherry Owen heads to the Sailor's Arms, where Sinbad still longs for Gossamer Beynon. The town prepares for the evening, to sleep or otherwise. Mr. Waldo sings drunkenly at the Sailors Arms. Captain Cat sees his drowned shipmates—and Rosie—as he begins to sleep. Organ-Morgan mistakes Cherry Owen for Johann Sebastian Bach on his way to the chapel. Mog and Myfanwy write to each other before sleeping. Mr. Waldo meets Polly Garter in a forest. Night begins and the citizens of Llareggub return to their dreams again. 

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The opera is frequently performed with minimal scenery (although Bernstein gave detailed instructions for drops and props) and very simple costumes. There are only two soloists, a married couple named Sam and Dinah. Their son, Junior, is often referred to but is never seen or heard. Other characters are addressed in certain scenes but also are never seen or heard: Sam's client Mr Partridge (on the telephone); his friend Bill (present and interacting with Sam but intended to be invisible); his secretary Miss Brown (present but intended to be invisible); Dinah's psychoanalyst ("invisible"); her milliner ("imaginary"). Trouble in Tahiti is the story of one day in the life of these desperately unhappy, though married people, lonely, longing for love, and unable to communicate. At the end of the opera, Sam and Dinah show a willingness to sacrifice for each other, out of commitment to the marriage, though there's not much pleasure to be had. A copyright is held for an alternate ending by Bernstein, which has not been released. 

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The introduction to the book says: In the world of 2116, a person's maximum age is strictly legislated: 21 years, to the day. When people reach this Lastday they report to a Sleepshop in which they are willingly executed via a pleasure-inducing toxic gas. A person's age is revealed by their palm flower crystal embedded in the palm of their right hand that changes color every seven years; yellow (age 0–6), then blue (age 7–13), then red (age 14–20), then blinks red and black on Lastday, and finally turns black at 21. Runners are those who refuse to report to a Sleepshop and attempt to avoid their fate by escaping to Sanctuary—a place where they can live freely in defiance of society's dictates. Logan 3 is a Deep Sleep Operative (also called a Sandman) whose job is to terminate Runners using a special weapon called simply 'the gun', a handgun with selectable ordnance keyed to self-destruct if touched by an individual who is not the proper owner. Runners are most terrified of a weapon called the 'Homer', which homes in on body heat and ignites every pain nerve in the body, killing the target. Sandmen practice Omnite, a hybrid type of martial arts. On his own Lastday, Logan becomes a Runner himself in an attempt to infiltrate an apparent underground railroad for runners seeking Sanctuary. For most of the book, Logan is an antihero; however, his character develops a sympathy towards Runners, and he becomes more of a traditional hero figure. Jessica 6, a contact that Logan made after he chased her Runner brother, Doyle 10, into Cathedral, where he was killed by the vicious, pre-teen "Cubs", helps him, despite her initial distrust of him. Francis, another Sandman, and friend of Logan, catches up with Logan and Jessica after they have managed to make it to the final-staging area before Sanctuary. Francis reveals that his true identity is that of the legendary Ballard, who has been helping arrange their escape. Francis tells them he is actually aged 42, but due to his faulty palm flower, which does not change colour and through use of plastic-surgery shops, he has been able to disguise his true age and appearance. He is working from within the system, as he believes the computer controlling the global infrastructure, buried beneath Crazy Horse Mountain, is beginning to malfunction, and the society will die with it. Sanctuary turns out to be Argos, a previously abandoned space colony near Mars. Logan and Jessica escape to the colony on a rocket, which departs from a former space program launch site in Florida, while Ballard remains to help others escape. 

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The player's starship just outside of Arth's orbit, with the navigator engaging the maneuver command The story begins on the planet Arth, a haven for the survivors of the Old Empire. Due to heavy radiation, the inhabitants have been forced to live beneath the planet's crust for centuries. In recent times, the radiation has finally dissipated from the surface, allowing the population to unearth long-lost technology belonging to Arth's original settlers. The inhabitants of Arth have recently discovered two things: first, that they were once a colony world of Earth; and second, Endurium, a crystalline mineral that fuels interstellar flight. An independent company called Interstel is dispatching ships to mine for resources, particularly Endurium. In addition, Interstel employees are instructed to seek information about Arth's history, alien artifacts, and planets with optimum environments for colonization. Early in the game, Arth scientists discover that stars throughout the local region of the galaxy are flaring, and the home planet of Arth is in danger. By following clues given in Interstel announcements and through contact with alien races in space, the crew discovers an Old Empire starship adrift in space. An endlessly repeating distress call has been transmitting from the ship for over a thousand years. Before the fall of the Old Empire, a scientific expedition known as the Noah 9 left Earth in search of Heaven, a paradise world to which humans could immigrate. The expedition never arrived, leaving a fleet of Mechan ships forever waiting for their arrival. Once their coded questions are answered correctly, the Mechans assume that the crew is, in fact, the long-awaited Noah 9. Further investigation leads the crew to Earth, the home world of the Old Empire. The planet lies in ruins and is devoid of all life, but contains information about the history of Old Empire and its fate. Additional clues are found in the Four Seedlings, a quadrilaterally symmetrical system made up of four suns. Centuries ago, the leaders of the Old Empire realized something was causing hostile aliens to flee from the center of the galaxy. The greatest minds from each of the races gathered at this location, where they discovered that the Crystal Planet was slowly eradicating all life. In a last act, they sent a human named Commander McConnell to end it, but he failed. At the start of the game, the Crystal Planet is slowly moving through the galaxy. The planet causes nearby stars to flare up and destroy all life in the system. The player must explore solar systems, gather clues, and find special artifacts that grant access to the Crystal Planet, ultimately destroying it before the player's home system flares. Commander McConnell's last journal entry can be found on the surface of the Crystal Planet; in it, he shares his discovery that Endurium is actually a race of living, sentient beings who are being burned up as fuel for interstellar travel. Because their metabolism is extremely slow due to their crystalline makeup, they are not even aware of outside life and have come to view other races as a virus. The game is won after the player successfully plants an artifact on the Crystal Planet's surface and retreats back into space, causing the planet to explode, though the game can still be played after the Crystal Planet is destroyed. 

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Two hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. As the play begins, Ben, the senior member of the team, is reading a newspaper, and Gus, the junior member, is tying his shoes. Gus asks Ben many questions as he gets ready for their job and tries to make tea. They argue over the semantics of "light the kettle" and "put on the kettle". Ben continues reading his paper for most of the time, occasionally reading excerpts of it to Gus. Ben gets increasingly animated, and Gus's questions become more pointed, at times nearly nonsensical. In the back of the room is a dumbwaiter, which delivers occasional food orders. This is mysterious and both characters seem to be puzzled why these orders keep coming; the basement is clearly not outfitted as a restaurant kitchen. At one point they send up some snack food that Gus had brought along. Ben has to explain to the people above via the dumbwaiter's "speaking tube" that there is no food. Gus leaves the room to get a drink of water in the bathroom, and the dumbwaiter's speaking tube whistles (a sign that there is a person on the other end who wishes to communicate). Ben listens carefully—we gather from his replies that their victim has arrived and is on his way to the room. Ben shouts for Gus, who is still out of the room. The door that the target is supposed to enter from flies open, Ben rounds on it with his gun, and Gus enters, stripped of his jacket, waistcoat, tie and gun. There is a long silence as the two stare at each other before the curtain falls. 

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